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Another Way to Make Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with rice, bread, herbs, suet, pig fat, and eggs, boiled in cloth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the blood as directed.

  2. Boil the rice in the milk until tender.

Make the mixture

  1. Combine the cooked rice, grated bread, and seasonings in a bowl.

  2. Add the minced herbs, suet, pig fat, and beaten eggs to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the blood until well combined.

  4. Divide the mixture into three portions and wrap in floured pudding cloths.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the puddings until cooked through.

  2. To serve, heat the puddings in a Dutch oven or slice and broil on a grill.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Blood
Sets when heated, giving the pudding its firm body and dark colour.
Rice
Adds bulk and a soft texture that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Cooks the rice and adds moisture for a tender interior.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set on heating, holding the pudding together.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the pudding moist and tender as it cooks.
Bread
Absorbs liquid and adds softness, helping the mixture hold together.

The step that matters

Boil the puddings until cooked through. Blood and egg proteins set as they heat, so the centre must reach full set. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard helps keep the casings from bursting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, bread, pepper, clove, parsley, sage):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, bread, pepper, clove, parsley, sage. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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